Mike Monroe: Stern’s Wallace joke might be good sign

An NBA executive who has been a source of flawless insight for nearly 20 years posited on Monday morning that a lockout breakthrough would occur in less than two weeks.

He has been right so often in the past, there is no reason to write him off as a cockeyed optimist. The cordiality that seemed to surround the quick conclusion of Tuesday’s latest face-to-face bargaining session seems to bear out his recent buoyancy.

The owners’ representatives met with the union’s reps for less than three hours in New York, and when the meeting broke up sooner than later, the very brevity of the session was analyzed instantly.

Did one side storm out?

Could a doomsday announcement be in the offing?

Had a significant change in the position of one side, or the other, required significant study?

NBA commissioner David Stern then borrowed from one of the most memorable post-playoff press conferences in league history in describing the session, telling the reporters in New York that “both teams played hard.”

You wonder if he also responded to the union’s doubts about the extent of losses claimed by the league over the last few seasons with “calculator don’t lie.”

Who knew recently retired Rasheed Wallace could have such influence over such weighty proceedings?

Three months into the lockout, we are approaching D-Day for the scheduled regular season, so when the two sides reconvene today, you should expect the meeting to last a lot longer than Tuesday’s abbreviated session.

No matter what happens in today’s talks, there will be a break for a couple of days to observe Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Unless significant progress is made today, it seems impossible for the weekend to pass without cancellation of the remaining weeks of preseason games.

Cancellation of regular season games can’t be far behind.

Since the owners imposed the lockout on July 1, each week has provided evidence that the union is much better positioned for the long haul than in 1998. Then, the first three months of the regular season were lost before a 50-game season became prelude to the Spurs’ first championship and the suggestion the title should come with an asterisk.

Players solidly have backed union president Derek Fisher and executive director Billy Hunter, who warned them for nearly two years to prepare for a lockout. Fisher has been masterful, both in keeping his membership together and keeping player agents on the sidelines as interested parties, rather than de facto participants.

In fact, some of the powerful agents who meddled then now counsel compromise by both sides. David Falk, whose clients made up the union’s leadership in 1998, now worries that the damage done to the league — owners and players — will be irreparable if a deal isn’t struck soon.

“There will be … severe damage to both sides,” Falk told the Washington Post’s Michael Lee on Tuesday. “You don’t know if the fans are going to come back.”

Falk, whose influence among NBA agents was unsurpassed while he represented Michael Jordan, pointed out the obvious. The ticket-buying public saw pro football get its act together in time to stage an entire season and is in no mood, during a soft economy, to feel anything but anger if the NBA owners and players can’t do the same.